Adventures in sewing – by men, for men.

Category Archives: Bags and Cases

It’s the beauty and the bane of every sewist’s existence: managing our fabric stash.

We all buy way more fabric than we actually need (and in my case, more than I can store). And we all end up purchasing some fabric that we look at later and say, “What the heck was I thinking?!” Continue reading →

No, I’m not giving up on the pants fitting project. But I did purchase a brand-new sewing machine over two months ago, and I’ve basically been using it to sew pants muslins with a basting stitch ever since I got it. It would be nice to have a project that doesn’t involve fitting at all, one where I can just sew.

My day job, for better for worse, has me taking the occasional 1 or 2-day business trip. Not being a traveler, I have little in the way of luggage. A bag that could accommodate necessities for an overnight trip would be a handy thing to have.

I spotted the Craftsy course, Sew Better Bags: The Weekend Duffel about a month ago. When Craftsy had another $19.95 sale on all classes around Christmas, I went for it. The bag pattern, by instructor Betz White, is well thought-out and has lots of nice details that give it a professional appearance. Here’s a model photo I stole from Craftsy’s website.

Hello everyone! I have lots of small stories to share today, but one of them is a big new project.

The Wool Felt Cellphone Case

I thought my Wool Felt Techie Cover project was complete – I had really only purchased enough fabric to make cases for the laptop and tablet. But I noticed there was enough of the berry pink fabric left over to make a case for my cellphone. So here it is.

Today I finished my prototype telescope caddy, and got it ready for a night under the stars this coming weekend!

Last time, I discussed how the extra-heavy eyepieces would prove too much for Velcro to hold the caddy onto the side of the telescope.

I altered the design to use a new idea for a suspension mechanism: A “cap” that covers the top of the telescope. The inside-facing side of the cap provides the support needed to suspend the outward-facing side.

Patterns and Cutting

Some things I needed to do:

Draw a pattern piece for the back side.

Add seam allowance to the front side piece.

Redraw the pattern pieces for the bellows pockets, this time to better fit the eyepieces.

Measure out two additional oilcloth strips to seam the inside to outside-facing piece.

After all the pattern alterations, I measured and cut all the pieces from the oilcloth. (Click or tap photos for larger versions).